Smithsonian Institution

FreightWaves Classics: Aerodrome No. 5 made history in 1896

The first failure of a manned aerodrome in 1903. (Photo: public domain)

An aviation milestone took place on this date in 1896. Near Quantico, Virginia (now the home of the FBI’s Training Academy), Aerodrome No. 5 completed the “first successful flights of an unpiloted, tandem-winged, engine-powered, heavier-than-air model of substantial size.” (“Aerodrome” is a derivative of a Greek phrase that roughly means “air runner.”)

The inventor of Aerodrome No. 5 was Samuel Langley. Using a catapult mounted on the top of a houseboat, Langley launched it twice. The...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-aerodrome-no-5-made-history-in-1896

FreightWaves Classics/Pioneers: First nonstop transcontinental flight across the US was 99 years ago

Lieutenants John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly with their Fokker T-2. (Photo: National Air and Space Museum)

The pleasant end to the story

On May 3, 1923, the first nonstop transcontinental flight across the United States ended successfully. U.S. Army Air Service lieutenants Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready landed a single-engine, high-wing airplane at Rockwell Field near San Diego, California. This was 26 hours, 50 minutes and 48 seconds after Kelly and Macready left Long Island’s Mitchel Field.

The aviators made the 2,625-mile trip across the United States less than 20 years after the Wright...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicspioneers-first-nonstop-transcontinental-flight-across-the-us-was-99-years-ago